In today's telephone networks, local calling features include the capability to be notified of a new incoming call when a subscriber is already involved on an existing call. This “call waiting” notification is typically in the form of a special call waiting tone, played to the subscriber and masked with silence to the other party on the existing call.
The subscriber then has the option of placing the existing call “on hold” to converse with the new callers, or ignore the new call. If ignored, the new call will receive “ring-no answer” (RNA) treatment or, alternatively, be redirected to a voice mailbox (if the subscriber has this feature). Although the subscriber may have the capability to view the new caller's ID and choose not to answer the call, the call waiting tone itself can be disruptive to the call in progress. The limitations of the current feature set are most obvious in the case where the subscriber does not have voice mail because if the subscriber does not answer the new call in this situation, the new caller will hear RNA indefinitely. This continuous ringing can give the caller the impression that the caller is not home, when in fact he/she may actually be on another call.
A need exists for a call waiting system that prevents the interruption of the current call based on the characteristics of the new call. A need also exists for a call waiting system that prevents a new call from an indefinite RNA.
The present embodiments meet these needs.